Merry Christmas

From my house to yours. Our Christmas tree this year.

My sweet friend Angela sent me this adorable Raggedy so I hung her on the the extra dining room chair so I could look at it every time I walk by.  :o)

Neena sent this adorable Kiss tree.  It used to have Hershey's Nuggets as the trunk but my husband already ate them.  lol

And this was what the goodie plates looked like that I took to my neighbors.  Everything turned out really tasty this year.  Yay!

 

My sister came to bake with me and we took a little break to see Christmas lights in Fullerton.  One person made these hanging ornaments filled with lights and now all the houses have them hanging from the trees.  It's quite a site.

December Fun

I hostessed our Bunco Christmas party last Wednesday.  There have been a few times when I wasn't the hostess but for the most part, December is at my house.  I actually like doing it in December because it gets me "moving" to decorate the house and get the tree up.  As our girls got older, finding the motivation to do it has been tough.  This helps nudge me.  :o)

We do a gift exchange/Dirty Santa game with a $20 limit.  I stole this adorable little sugar/creamer snowman.  His hat is a bowl, his head is a bowl and I guess you could use the body as a cup but I think I will put Equal or sugar packets in there.  He even has a spoon!  Adorable, right?

My daughter Kelley and I did two craft shows in December.  This is her with all her cute 'stuff'.  That is behind us and we've moved onto Christmas shopping.  The money we made has come in handy but we didn't get rich.  It's a tough way to make money, that's for sure.  Kelley does sell her stuff on a website if you like adorable art.  www.kellsworthink.com.   

 

I went to a yard sale in my neighborhood a few Friday's ago.  I saw a box if rustic picture frames and called Kelley to see if she wanted them to frame her artwork.  The lady was selling them in a 'lot' for $10.00.  That included about 8 frames that were 5x7 openings and 3 that looked to be 10x10.  Kelley liked the picture I sent her so I bought them. 

 

When I pulled them out of the box, I saw some had hearts glued to them.  Obviously, these were from a wedding.  I had to send Kelley a picture of the hearts.  Kelley's boyfriend is Jason. He is an IT guy who's trying to finish school and then they'll make plans to get married, God willing (as my mom used to say). She would like something small and vintage-like and she loves the carnival theme that has been quite popular lately.  These might be saved for a "someday" wedding instead of artwork.  They're already decorated for the bride and groom.  K+J  lol

God Bless These Families!

Got The Tree!!

I hope to have it decorated by Sunday. The picture looked better on my phone, with palm trees in the background!  Tonight is a trip to do some shopping and tomorrow is a craft show so it'll have to wait for me to have a minute to call my own! 

If you live in Orange County (CA), here's the info for the craft show:

Saturday, Dec. 8th, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (indoors)
Free parking, Free admission

6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m., Santa visits with the kids, cookie decorating and a decorated Christmas tree auction.

Christ Lutheran School
820 W. Imperial Hwy.
Brea, CA

Sounds like a great family even, right?!!!

Christmas Card Workshop

My daughter Stephanie had her stamping workshop today.  It was part workshop, part open house so we could get to working on our Christmas cards. 

 

 

We made eight cards using the Connie Stewart Flash Card method of cutting cardstock.  If you haven't seen this method yet, check her out by doing a search on youtube.  It's a great system to make a batch of cards but real quick.  We made two sets of 4 designs that Stephanie came up with.  It was fun to not only do cards so quick but also because everyones cards came out so different. 

 



This one is embossed with a snowflake design on the background that just adds a soft element to the card.

 

I love this little cup!  So stinkin' cute! 

 

I did a demo for this coffee card.  Just on time to tuck in a little coffee gift card for your favorite hair stylist or BFF.

 And because Kelley is trying to meet a deadline, she painted some little "people" while we all worked on our cards.  She was trying to meet the deadline for two craft shows Wednesday night and Saturday.  I think these will be gingerbread folks, snowmen and little elves.

Santa Ornie

Here's the finished lil guy. Pretty darn cute, huh? :-)

Can you guess?

Working on some ornaments today. I love the picture on the pattern. I jut hope mine come out as cute!!

Mic-key M o u s eeeee!

A family friend, Brenda, has the cutest little boy named Mason.  It's Mason's 1st birthday party tomorrow so I offered to help out by doing up some decorations.  I used my daughter's Mickey Mouse Cricut cartridge.  What a great and easy theme for a party.  The colors are great and Mickey is a classic.  We should all hold up so well!!

 

First, I did a banner with the Mickey icon that was about 10" tall.  I ended up using a little punch to attach them together and little black brads.  I just forgot to take a picture after it was done.  I gave my oldest dd specific instructions to take a picture at the party tomorrow.  I've had a cold and I'm not going to go.  :o(

 

I also made little centerpieces for the tables.  These aren't finished either.  lol  Brenda has the shredded paper that goes inside the bucket so they will be put together at the party tomorrow.  This was my prototype.

 

I decided to use the cartridge (while it and all the mess from the projects was out on the table) to make Mason's birthday card.  I've never made cards with layers like Mickey has but they are fairly easy to do.  I like the way the card came out but honestly, Mickey makes the card. 

I'm so bummed I'm missing the party but I'm sure everyone there will appreciate that I kept my cooties to myself.  :o(

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are no pictures of humans in my post, just some Thanksgiving decorations.  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

 

Kelley painted little people for Thanksgiving.  This is my set and the little Pilgrim wearing the hat that I made.  hehe

 

The mantel.  The pumpkin is a Styrofoam ball covered with batting and fabric that I made several years ago.

 

This scarecrow is something else I made years ago.  He's held up pretty good.  He will be coming down tomorrow so the Christmas decorations can go up.  Woohoo!!

The calm before the storm!!!!  :o)

Craft Time

This isn't a great picture but I wanted to share this photo from the craft show we did last Wednesday night.  Wow, it's already been a week.  Where are the days going???  Kelley (oldest daughter) and I shared a table and we though maybe next month, we'll get two.  lol  Kelley did the best she's ever done at this show and there was barely a crowd.  We will do it again in December and hope for a better turn out and in turn, better sales.  Woo hoo!

 

 



Kelley called Monday night and asked me if I thought I could make small pilgrim hats for some little people she was making for Thanksgiving.  She was making sets of one pilgrim boy and a turkey.  The boy has a typical pilgrim hairdo with bangs and a sort of pageboy cut.  She said without a hat, he looks sort of like a girl.  Didn't all pilgrims with those lovely hairdos?  :o) 

 

So....feeling up for a challenge, I got out my circle die from Stampin' Up! and picked the two smallest circles and cut out some felt.  I made an arc for the hat and got my tacky glue out.  This is what I came up with but the top circle had to be cut out by hand.  I didn't have anything small enough.  WHAT???  I must be missing a tool.  LOL  The soda cap is from a 2 liter bottle so you can see what size they are.

 

 

I finished them off with a buckle from a Stampin' Up set I had from a few years ago and some black satin ribbon.  Here they are but the glue hadn't completely dried yet.  It dried clear so they looked better.

 

 

Kelley's supposed to come over tonight and we'll see how the hats fit.  I tried one of these on my little monster she painted me and it looked really cute.  I'll see if she'll "allow me" to share a picture with you.  I think she's afraid she'll get more orders.  lol

 

 

 

Baby Shower Card and Gift

I'm going to a baby shower tomorrow for one of the girls that played softball with my youngest, Ashley.  So far, three of her friends are expecting a baby.  I guess that's how it works when they all got married not so long ago.  First comes love, then comes marriage....you know how it goes.  :o)

 

 

Amy is expecting a little girl and her theme for the babies room is shabby chic and owls.  I went on Pinterest to find ideas for the Stampin' Up! owl punch since I have it and thought that would be cute.  Cute doesn't even begin to explain what I found.  Look at this card I made from the owl punch!

 

 

 

Here is a link to the lady's site that made the card but she didn't give any directions, just a supply list.  Luckily, I had almost all I needed to make the card.  The dresses are the vest of the owl punch.  I didn't have the onsie stamp to make the background of the dresses but I did have these little silver hangers.  They were the perfect size.  I did like the ribbon and safety pin on the sample card but I didn't have the right color pink. 

 

For the gift, I bought some owl fabric and made a nursing cover up.  There was one on Amy's registry at Babies 'R Us but it wasn't very cute.  And when you're having a little girl, you NEED cute!  lol  My daughter used to have a pattern for the cover up but she couldn't find it.  She sent me this link from Pinterest.  They saved the day again!  Although, if you make this cover up, you need one yard of fabric and not 3/4's.  There isn't enough for the straps.

 

You sew boning in the top so when it's around the mommy's neck, she can see her little darlin' but has privacy and has her hands free.  Much better than the receiving blankets I used to use years ago.  Such a great idea.

 

When I was at Joann's looking for some cute fabric, I found some owl buttons in the "make your own rubber pants" aisle.  I had to get them and figured I'd sew one on this project somewhere.  I ended up pinning it on the strap instead to hold it in place and it can be removed for washing. 

Old Stuff, New Stuff

I started working on these Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks when my youngest was playing softball on a travel team.  They were good to take along and work on under a shade tree while she played her games.  Fast forward about six years.....and I'm still making these blocks.  Obviously, I don't work on them often or there would be many, many more blocks.  I have decided I'm never going to have enough to make a big quilt so I'm going to cut background fabric and machine applique these onto the background and make Ashley a baby quilt.  She's not pregnant but at the speed I work, I better get started.  LOL

 

 

My sister, Isabel made me these adorable towels.  She made three sets, one for me, one for herself and one for her daughter-in-law.  They are super cute in person and sure make my kitchen brighter and ready for some pumpkin pie and turkey!  (Now if someone would just tell Mother Nature it's fall and we could get rid of these 90 degree days!!)

 

And here are some of the make-up (or goodie) bags I've been working on.  Mustaches...

 

Day of the Dead...with dingle balls of course.  lol

 

And 'bugs' and scooters...in pink and orange

 

And pink and black.  I love this color combination!

 

I read my ballot over the last few days and I'm ready to vote.  When you watch all this tv and listen to the radio ads, doesn't it make you think....the things we could get done in this nation if we put that money to use to fix our problems instead of all the blah, blah, blah!

Mini Retreat!



We had so much fun at our little mini-retreat at my friend Susan's house.  It was so nice of her to open her house up to us so we could have a little sew-in at little cost, just gas to get there, food and the shopping expense.  hehe...sometimes that shopping can be bad but we were all good girls.  :o)

 

Susan shared the first quilt she ever made.  She was just in high school when she made it.  We all thought it was a pretty good job, not only for a teenager but the fact that it's still together!!  It's a crazy quilt and it's tied with yarn in the corners. 

 

 

Here is a picture of me, Susan and Neena.  (Nice hairdo, huh?)  We all went through school together and Susan was the Maid of Honor at my wedding.  That's a whole lotta years of being friends!!  It's so fun that we all quilt, stamp or do something crafty.  It allows us to spend time together while enjoying our hobbies.



 

This is a shot from upstairs, where the ironing board was.  After pinning the borders, I would go inside and sew them on.  Then I would trek upstairs to the ironing board.  I did this for 4 borders, 2 sides at a time......that would be 8 times!!!  Repeat a few more times for the backing and the other projects I took.  It was quilting aerobics!!!  :o)  Oh, the lady seated on the left is Judy. She's a nice lady that worked at Disneyland with Susan but recently retired. Lucky duck!  



 

Michael and Nicole made a delicious dinner Saturday night.  Michael is the girlfriend of Susan's son and Nicole is her daughter.  They made Sopes or Mamelas.  They are a corn masa patty cooked and then you raise the edge to create a little dam to hold all the goodies on.  We put beans, carnitas, a little potato and green salsa.  Mmmmm!!  Since we were retreating, we cheated and bought the meat and salsa from the little Mexican market.  It was all delicious!  Especially the margaritas!  hehe  And yes, we still sewed straight seams and no one sewed through their fingers.  ;o)

 

Did I say yummmmm?

 

This little block might look familiar.  I made it when I was at the retreat in Indiana.  I was going to just make a little table topper but Judy said it would make a nice pillow.  I had it pinned and all ready to go so I just went ahead and quilted it and then did a backing with a slip cover type opening.  I just need to buy a pillow and I'm set.  A UFO no more!

 

Susan had her hubby pull the ping pong table out before leaving for his guy weekend. This thing was a god-send!!! I pinned one border on the floor but knew that wouldn't be good for my back. This was ideal. I had to fold the middle of the quilt over so I could measure and pin the borders but that was no big deal. That big beast on the left is Dooley, the sweetest HUGE dog you ever want to meet. This picture gives you an idea of how big he is but his head is down. When he is standing tall, he's probably chest height. Makes you want to get a saddle! lol 

And here is my two year old project, Jared Takes a Wife. My sister Isabel and I took the Bonnie Hunter class at Road to CA a couple of years ago.  Of course, hers has been done for a while.  She made a little bigger than lap size and quilted it herself.  I pretty much procrastinated because I needed a place to spread this out (ping pong table to the rescue!!).  I added enough borders, it gives me the 'drop' I needed so it would cover my bed.  I'm checking into longarm prices to see if I can have it quilted.  I just don't think I have it in me to do it on my Juki. 

 

Here is a close up of the borders.  I didn't follow any pattern and hope that isn't obvious by looking at the photos.

 

I have a couple of craft shows I'll be doing with my daughter so back to the sewing machine for me.

Shopping Extravaganza!!

I started this post two weeks ago....got a little busy and realized I never published it.  DOH!!!!

 

We should all be very excited in Southern California.  We have Hobby Lobby stores in our area now!  Woohoo!!!!  Now "THIS" is a craft store!!  I have a feeling HL is going to give Michael's a run for their money.

 

I met my three girls a few weeks ago and went to the new HL in Huntington Beach.  OMG, we were all in Heaven.  Well, except for my youngest who isn't very crafty.  lol  If we were the Spice Girls I would be Crafty Mama Spice, Kelley would be Artsy Spice, Stephanie would be Crafty Junior Spice and Ashley would be...Sporty Spice?  She loves a good deal, maybe she could be Bargain Shopper Spice...lol.  

We all got a few "deals", supplies and things we couldn't live without.  lol  The girls went back home but Stephanie asked me if I wanted to go with her to Fabric Barn in Long Beach.  You would think Fabric Barn would sell fabric.  They do but very little.  It's the ribbon mecca store, wedding supplies, crafting supplies, etc.  So off we went to keep shopping.  Stephanie makes headbands and hair accessories and the ladies at work buy them for their little girls so she needed a little inventory.  Here is a peek at just a few of the choices.

 

And because these pictures aren't perfectly clear, you might not be able to see the prices but they are usually about $2.00/$2.50 a spool for 25 yards!  And the choices.....needless to say, pretty good selection.

 

 

THEN, as if that wasn't enough shopping......on Sunday morning I went to see my sister who was visiting her son and daughter-in-law.  When I got home my husband asked me if I wanted to go to Ikea and get the bookcase I had been wanting to get for the spare bedroom where I keep my paper/stamping supplies.  Sigh........I was just down the street from there but I didn't balk at the chance to get the corner of that room organized and off we went.  This one is the smaller of the Expedit bookcases.  I was a little disappointed the polka dot boxes didn't fit two on a shelf.  I didn't think to measure them (duh) but my photo boxes fit on top of them so it'll do.

 



 

With that crazy site, Pinterest, I have been saving containers for crafting/gift giving and needed a place to put all those things.  I've got those (tins, boxes, crystal light containers, etc.) in the clear boxes from Costco.  That helped clean up this corner very nicely. 

 

Since this redo in the room, I went on a retreat and got a big quilt top finished.  I'll try to post those pictures tomorrow.  I'm really happy how it came out.